1890
Two US patents for the first jukebox are issued to Louis Glass and his business associate, William S. Arnold, describing a “coin actuated attachment for phonographs.” (US No. 428,750, -1) Their first jukebox is a coin-operated Edison Class M Electric Phonograph with an oak cabinet, and it will first be placed in the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco, California. For a nickel a play, a patron could listen using one of four listening tubes. (Because vacuum tubes haven’t been invented, the device doesn’t feature any amplification.) Dubbed the “Nickel-in-the-Slot,” the machine is an instant success, earning over US$1,000 in less than half a year.
1931
The first full scale US wind tunnel for testing airplanes is opened at the Langley Field Research Center in Virginia. In the thirty foot high sixty foot wide tunnel, the aerodynamics of full-size airplanes can be tested in air speeds up to 115mph. The air is driven by two propellers downstream, each over 35 feet in diameter, powered by 4,000hp electric motors. Over the next sixty-five years, tests will be run on helicopters, the Mercury space capsule, parachutes, parafoils, the occasional dirigible, and the fastest submarine in the world. Generations of aircraft will passed through the full-scale tunnel. NASA will close the tunnel in October 1995.
Auguste Piccard and Charles Knipfer become the first men to enter into the stratosphere when they ride their balloon to an altitude of 51,800 feet, nearly ten miles above the Earth. The feat requires the use of a pressurized cabin, which Piccard designed. On-board experiments include the use of an electroscope to investigate cosmic rays.
1939
DC Comics debuts its second superhero in Detective Comics No. 27. The superhero is Batman, who will go on to be one of the greatest commercial successes in the comic industry. This issue also marks Commissioner Gordon’s first appearance. According to creator Bob Kane, his inspirations for Batman were Superman, Leonardo da Vinci’s design of a bat-like glider, and two films: “The Mark of the Zorro” and ”The Bat Whispers”.
1946
Tests of the Westinghouse/Glenn L Martin Stratovision airborne system for television relay are conducted on the US east coast and between Boston and Detroit.
1953
Universal-International releases their first 3-D feature film, It Came from Outer Space, with stereophonic sound, directed by Jack Arnold and starring Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, and Charles Drake to US theaters. The film is based on a story written by Ray Bradbury. In it, John Putnam and Ellen watch a fireball from the sky fall near a mine. They quickly come to believe that the it is no a meteor but an alien ship that has landed. In the days to follow, people begin mysteriously disappearing only to return under some unknown influence. The local Sheriff and his men enter the mine in the hope of putting an end to the advance of the alien force’s purpose, but Putnam enter the alien ship in an attempt to reach a peaceful solution. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 21 mins
1959After almost a decade of use, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) finally deactivates the Whirlwind computer. The system, which was the first computer to operate in real time and use video displays for output, was unveiled in 1951 on Edward R. Murrow’s national news show “See It Now.” Read more about the Whirlwind at Bitsavers.
1977
A Unix Colloquium in Glasgow marks the beginning of UKUUG, the UK’s Unix and Open Systems User Group. The UKUUG is a non-profit organization that advocates open systems, particularly Unix and similar operating systems, promotes Free and Open Source Software, and facilitates collaboration towards the advancement of open programming standards. Visit the official UKUUG website.
The Walt Disney Company dedicates the Space Mountain ride in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. The total cost of constructing the ride was US$20 million. Visit the official website of Space Mountain at Disneyland.
1981
Apple Computer sells 2.6 million shares to the public, at US$31.25 per share. Apple Computer
1982
Wang Laboratories introduces the Wang Professional Computer. featuring Intel 16-bit processors. Prices: US$2,700-9,000
1985
Apple Computer stops selling computers directly to corporations.
Lotus Development releases Lotus Jazz for the Macintosh. Price: US$595
1988
Microsoft releases two versions of Windows 2.1 graphical user interface-based operating system for personal computers less than a year after the release of Windows 2.0. This version, specifically takes advantage of advanced features of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors. The first version, Windows/286 2.1 introduces the himem.sys DOS driver to take advantage of the High Memory Area (HMA) in order to increase the memory available to Windows programs. The second version, Windows/386 2.1 is much more advanced. It introduces a protected mode kernel, above which the GUI and applications run as a virtual 8086 mode task. It allows several MS-DOS programs to run in parallel in “virtual 86″ CPU mode, rather than always suspending background applications. Each DOS application can use as much low memory as is available before Windows is started, minus a few kilobytes of overhead. Windows/386 also provides EMS emulation, using the memory management features of the 80386 to make RAM beyond 640K behave like the banked memory previously only supplied by add-in cards and used by popular DOS applications.
1991
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Mind’s Eye” first airs. (No. 424) In it, Romulans kidnap Geordi from a shuttle as he travels to Risa in an attempt to brainwash him into carrying out an assassination aboard the Enterprise. Memory Alpha entry
Vince Perriello resigns as FidoNews Editor. FidoNews is one of the Internet’s earliest popular newsletters.
1994
Data East releases Fighter’s History for the Super NES. The game is a port of the 1993 arcade version. Fighter’s History is a straight clone of other fighting games. Aside from the gimmick of an opponent becoming dizzy when he or she is hit repeatedly in a specified spot, its fighting engine along with many other elements of the game, such as sound effects and fighter backgrounds, are extremely similar to those of Street Fighter II.
The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory breaks the record for the highest temperature produced in a laboratory when it raises the temperature of Plasma to 510 million degrees Celsius (918 million degrees Fahrenheit). The TFTR, which was founded in December 1982, is the largest magnetic fusion laboratory in the United States and the first such device in the world to study the confinement and heating of plasmas using Deuterium and Tritium mixtures. Visit the official Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory website.
1997
Eric S. Raymond first presents his essay on the philosophy of software engineering methods, The Cathedral and the Bazaar (CatB) at the Linux Kongress. In 1999, the essay will be published as part of a book of the same name. The essay, which is based on his observations of the development of the Linux kernel and his experiences managing the Fetchmail open source project, is widely regarded as the principal manifesto of the open source movement. Read The Cathedral and the Bazaar at Google Books.
Power Computing begins shipping the PowerTower Pro 250 computer, featuring Macintosh compatibility, a 150 MHz PowerPC 604e processor, 32MB RAM, a 2GB hard drive, a 16X CD-ROM drive, 1MB Level 2 cache, a 128-bit graphics accelerator, and six PCI slots, and nine expansion bays. Price: US$4,495
The website of Scan is hacked anonymously. View an archived version of the defaced website.
The website of the The Lost World: Jurassic Park film (http://www.lost-world.com) is defaced. On the website’s splash screen the film’s trademark dinosaur logo is replaced with the profile of a prehistoric-looking duck accompanied by the title “The Lost Pond: Jurassic Duck.” The Amblin Entertainment logo is replaced with the signature “hackers”. The rest of the web site was apparently untouched. Alan Sutton, vice president of distribution and marketing for Universal Studios says that, while Universal plans to improve their security, he thinks that the prank is amusing and was done in a spirit of fun. Later, some on the hacker scene will speculate that the hack was a fake perpetrated by Universal Studios to draw attention to the website of The Lost World, which premiered May 19th.
1999
Garry Norris, IBM’s former director of software strategy and strategic relations, testifies in an ongoing antitrust trial against Microsoft Corporation. According to Norris, Microsoft quintupled royalties to US$220 million to encourage IBM to drop support for Netscape Navigator, Lotus Notes, and other software.
In an ongoing series of attacks, hackers deface the website of the US Senate, which is taken down later in the day. The overall look of the website is left largely in tact, but altered a news links to read “Senator Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., was assassinated,” added a rude sexual reference, and a very noticeable message stating, “You CAN stop ONE, but you can NOT stop ALL! Free Kevin, Free Zyklon!” Kevin, of course, is a reference to the legendary Kevin Mitnick, while “Zyklon” refers to Eric Burns. The website for the FBI also remains inaccessible after hackers overwhelmed its computers using a denial of service attack in an unsuccessful attempt to compromise the site a day earlier, on the 26th. Neither website will be accessible until late on Friday the 28th. The attacks are a response to an ongoing FBI anti-hacking crackdown, following the indictment of Eric Burns, and a series of raids executed by Federal agents earlier in the week on suspects’ homes in Dallas, Houston and other locations around the country.
Yahoo! acquires Encompass, Inc.
Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Health.
2000
The website of FlashMail is hacked by “PentaGuard”. View an archived version of the defaced website.
2002
Handspring releases the Treo 270 handheld computer, featuring a 12-bit 40996-color display, a 33 MHz Motorola Dragonball processor, a keyboard, a cell phone, and 16MB RAM. The Treo 270 bears a striking similarity to the Treo 180, with the significant addition of a color screen that is not only sharper, but also brighter than its predecessor. It also features an improved battery life. Price: US$499 in the and £549 in the UK, including one-year cell phone service contract Weight: 5.4 ounces
Handspring releases the Treo 90 handheld computer, featuring a color screen, Palm 4.1 OS, 16MB RAM, a keyboard, and Secure Digital slot.
2003
Ambrosia Software releases Uplink for Mac OS X. In the game, the player assumes the role of a hacker in the year 2010, who begins work for the Uplink Corporation. The player amasses Gateway hardware, money, skill, and software in the course of performing jobs for various clients, hacking the servers of global corporations for profit. Uplink focuses on emulating highly stylized, Hollywood-esque hacking, as seen in movies such as Hackers, Sneakers, Swordfish, and WarGames. References to these movies can be found throughout the game, including joke servers for companies such as Steve Jackson Games (which appears in the game to have been raided by the Secret Service) and a nuclear missile control system from WarGames.
Matt Mullenweg releases the first version (.70) of the WordPress open source blog publishing system. The system is a successor to b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The system will grow into one of the most popular pieces of blogging software on the net. Visit the official WordPress website.
Novell enters the lawsuit between the SCO Group and International Business Machines (IBM) with a press release concerning the SCO Group’s ownership of the Unix operating system. “To Novell’s knowledge, the 1995 agreement governing SCO’s purchase of Unix from Novell does not convey to SCO the associated copyrights,” said a letter to the SCO Group’s CEO Darl McBride. “We believe it unlikely that SCO can demonstrate that it has any ownership interest whatsoever in those copyrights. Apparently you share this view, since over the last few months you have repeatedly asked Novell to transfer the copyrights to SCO, requests that Novell has rejected.” Visit the official Novell website.
2004
Jessica Quitugua Sabatia, a former accounts payable clerk for North Bay Health Care Group, pleads guilty to two counts of computer fraud. Sabatia admits to using her computer to access North Bay’s accounting software without authorization, and issuing approximately one hundred twenty-seven checks payable to herself and others. She attempted to conceal the fraud by altering the electronic check registers of North Bay to make it appear as if the checks had been payable to the company’s vendors. The fraudulent scheme resulted in losses to North Bay of at least US$875,035.
Version 2.3.4 of the Python programming language is released. Visit the official Python website.
2005
Lavasoft releases Ad-Aware SE 1.06. Ad-Aware is an anti-spyware program that detects and removes software on a user’s computer that is determined to be spyware or adware. The personal edition of the program is available to individuals for free. Visit the official Ad-Aware website.
2006
InPhase Technologies announces that it has demonstrated a holographic storage drive capable of recording 515 gigabits of data per square inch, setting a record for the highest commercial data storage density ever achieved. Visit the official InPhase website.
2007
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, headed up by computer science professor Luis von Ahn, launches a new service called reCAPTCHA that will not only protect websites from spambots, but also help digitize books, magazines, and newspapers so that they can eventually be made computer searchable for the Internet Archive. The service repurposes Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) technology originally developed by Carnegie Mellon for Yahoo to prevent computers from registering bogus e-mail accounts. reCAPTCHA presents two words, one that has been recognized by optical character recognition (OCR) software and one that hasn’t been recognized. The word that the computer recognizes confirms that the user is human and increases system confidence that what the second user-entered word is correct. If enough users identify the second, unrecognized word the same way, the system deduces the meaning of the digitized word. Visit the official website of The reCAPTCHA project
2008
Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, a gamer who first became famous for purchasing a virtual asteroid in the MMORPG Entropia Universe for US$100,000 in real currency, releases his first album, no Rock uN Rolled, produced in collaboration with his girlfriend, singer Tina Leiu. The album, which combines his love for classic fifties rock with techno music, includes the song “Gamer Chick,” which he wrote for Leiu. The single is also released to virtual in-game jukeboxes across the Entropia Universe, arguably making Jacobs the first virtual reality pop star. Visit Neverdie’s personal website. Watch the music video for Gamer Chick.
Scientists at the Leiden University Medical Center announce that they have successfully completed sequencing the DNA of a woman for the first time. The sequencing took six months, because it was run as a ‘side operation,’ and cost €40,000 (US$63,000). The first sequencing of a composite human genome was completed in 2001, and since then, at least four individual male genomes and those of about a dozen animals have been sequenced.
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